The present invention relates to a marking apparatus, and in particular to a marking apparatus which can provide indicia on sleeves intended as markers for cables. The invention also relates to the sleeves when marked by such apparatus.
Markers are often used on electrical cables for identification purposes and conveniently may comprise a plastic sleeve, which has been marked with the identifying indicia, the plastic sleeve being then slipped over the cable or wire to be marked.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,006 discloses an apparatus for printing indicia on a continuous elongate three-dimensional member but it does not provide for marking plastic tubing and severing or semi-severing the marked product downstream of the marking head, i.e., to provide individual marker sleeves.
I have now devised an apparatus for rapidly and automatically providing marker sleeves bearing indicia meeting individual requirements. This particularly enables a rapid service to be provided to those who apply markers to cables, in that an order for specified sleeves with specified indicia can quickly be converted to machine instructions to which the apparatus automatically responds for marking sleeves according to the requirements so that the order can be quickly fulfilled.